No reduction in plastic waste over 25 years

Richard Nicholls has been running a dive store in Manly for 25 years and his business partnered with the volunteers to reduce the plastic waste in the cove.

Throughout his career he has been heavily involved in underwater clean-up initiatives but witnessed little reduction in the amount of plastic being recovered.

"We pretty much get 1,000 kilograms a year from pretty much one spot in Manly Cove," he said.

"It's sad in a way. We always hoped that the amount would drop and for a while we thought it was dropping, but all that was happening was that we were getting more efficient at picking up rubbish from that spot.

"So we just widened our search area a little bit and basically produced the same results."